The French and that intrinsically eloquent language of theirs are partout ce soir: whether ça langue be spewing out from Barbican Underground, spewed up on the bar or sighed from adorable support act Mina Tindle who purports a Francophonic Feist-y thing punctuated by looped handclaps that smacks of iPad endorsement, la vie en rose is welcomely omnipresent. A short and suitably suave interval procedes Tindle's sweet and equally short showing in which Nick Cave may be papped propping up a foundational internal organ of this industrial marvel. Pleaded to return to seats over Tannoy crackle, Camille's out and ...

Yes, it's getting to be that time again - local elections! Yay! No, not really. We're talking about festivals, obviously. And one festival that's getting us particularly excited this year is madcap city-of-scallywags-and-spectacularness Boomtown Fair, whose already fearsome reputation has been bolstered by a line-up so delicious that we couldn't think of a delicious enough way to finish this sentence, and were forced to end it like this. Read more..

If the stereotypically gelid Scandinavian climes were to increase a negligible fraction of a degree every time one of its acts or artists were interrogated as to why they'd opted to articulate their deepest (and in many cases darkest) sing-song secrets via the grotesquely universal medium that the English lingo has irrefutably become, the temperatures would be veritably Bahaman. Arguably Nordic musical outpour would be diluted, perhaps infused with a Balearic lethargy; the place would be filled with pallid Brits; the exchange rate would in all likelihood descend further into absurdity. Brian Batz thankfully doesn't really buy into ...

Music For Occupy , a label clinging to the intention 'to inspire and celebrate through music the Occupy Wall Street movement and the 99% who’ve been adversely affected by the economic corruption that has permeated our Democracy' is next month to release Occupy This Album , a compilation comprising 99 previously commercially unavailable tracks (plus a hidden something) from 99 different artists. One of said 99 are post-rock titans Mogwai  who contribute this swirling maelstrom of rambunctious destruction going by the name of Earth Division. Aside from madcap documentarist Michael Moore covering Dylan's The Times They Are A-Changin', this unreleased ...

When it comes to the progressive ingenuity of yesteryear few records could even conceive of doing battle with Gloss Drop : an explorational work of avant-garde invention, it saw the streamlined New York outfit punch well above their weight. It is and was their opus, and it remains revolutionary. This time however, although it may again be Battles' name on Dross Glop (the droll epithet attached to this collection of radical overhauls) and even if their madcap freeform fingerprints may be smeared indelibly all over it they've handed the gloves over to a plethora of pioneering genre straddlers to beat ...

Madcap Chicago Electro Boogie trio Ghosthouse have been an act we’ve been keeping an eye on for some time now. They are so much fun, like Chromeo and The Time and Prince in a blender. they’ve just dropped a new single, ‘Stop Drop & Roll’ with a full reMix package, for absolutely free! ‘Stop Drop [...]

The madcap dancer and percussionist will be on the tour, but will not be doing his onstage antics due to a groin strain.

Here’s the video for The Penelopes’ ElectroPop gem ‘Sally In The Galaxy’, out next month on Pour Le Monde Records. The track is really fun and off-kilter so director Saman Keshavarz had a lot to live up to, and seems to have managed to capture the madcap vibe of the song really well. ‘Sally In [...]

You’d expect any album with a CD sleeve that folds out into a functional Ouija board to be obsessed with the paranormal or worshipping at the upside down altar of Norwegian black metal. However Lazarus And The Plane Crash are in neither camp – and appear more interested in a game of charades. “Horseplay” is the perfect title for this record, “ a collision ” between The Clerkenwell Kid aka Stephen Coates of The Real Tuesday Weld and The Guillotines ' singer Joe Coles, bringing together the arch ‘antique beat’ of the former with some full-throated rock ‘n’ roll theatrics from the latter ...

Natural Selection Dir. Robbie Pickering [The Cinema Guild; 2012] by Susanna Locascio Rating: It’s been interesting to revisit last year’s SXSW big winner a year after its premiere. Natural Selection , director Robbie Pickering’s ostensible comedy, has what could be the platonic conception of a festival film premise (Christian woman goes on road trip to find husband’s sperm donor son!), but a second viewing only reinforces its dramatic core. While knowing the outcome dulled some of the zany plot twists, it also sharpened the lens on leads Rachael Harris and Matt O’Leary. They’ve been rightfully ...

Kevin Ayers was a big admirer of Syd Barrett, and when he was about to record the catchy Singing A Song In The Morning , a.k.a. Religious Experience , he paid the Floyd eccentric a visit. Ayers invited him to add some of his trademark guitar magic, to which Barrett agreed, and on the 28th of November, 1969 the madcap duly appeared at Abbey Road studios. Alas, the producers thought Barrett's contribution was too uncommercial for release (nonsense of course) and the song too long (quite right). Subsequently, the take was never officially released until the cd remaster of ...

LA's Johnny Madcap and the Distractions have released a video for their new song, "Action." The band will be entering the studio to record their first full-length this month. They released their Let's Get Lost EP in 2010.

The consensus seems to be that it was Florence And The Machine's night at the NME awards last night . She only won two prizes, but if you stare very hard at those, you can try and pretend that this never happened: Best British Band: Kasabian Yes. Really. There are some signs that this year, although it might not be exactly alternative, the NME awards haven't just gone to winners who would have been in with a chance of getting the same prize at The Brits. Florence's best track and best solo is still quite a timid choice ...

When Two Broke Girls won Favorite New TV Comedy at the 2012 People’s Choice Awards, it came as a surprise to many casual television viewers who lumped it in with the infamously despised Whitney. Both shows are written by comedian Whitney Cummings, to be sure, but while Whitney is annoying and borderline misogynistic, Two Broke Girls is something else altogether — an affectionate throwback to the madcap comedies of the Sixties and Seventies. As my actor friend points out, it’s basically a Laverne and Shirley update. In a good way. One of the sparks that ignites the series is ...

More bouncy, madcap, Pop-House from Australian producer of much prolificness BeNi. This new single ‘Someone Just Like You’ is taken from BeNi’s acclaimed album of last year, ‘House Of BeNi’. Check the video, it;s a kaleidoscope as BeNi’s music. ‘Someone Just Like You’ is out soon. Buy BeNi’s music from: